Goldman Sachs gears up to buy our distressed assets for pennies on the dollar

Goldman Sachs has amassed a warchest of $164bn in cash and liquid assets that could be used to buy distressed securities and loans as its rivals clear their balance sheets of such holdings, Goldman’s chief financial officer said on Tuesday. (Source.)

In other news: Goldman Sachs posted a $1.7 billion profit today — and with it, Goldman set aside $4.7 billion for salaries and bonuses. (Source.)

Meanwhile, the economic crash continues:

The Labor Department reports that another 663,000 jobs evaporated in March and that those who still had jobs worked only 33.2 hours a week – another new low. (Source.)

Retail sales for March fell 9.4 percent compared with a year ago, according to a report April 14 from the U.S. Census Bureau. (Source.)

Nearly 1.2 million debtors filed for bankruptcy in the past 12 months, according to federal court records collected and analyzed by the AP. Last month, 130,831 sought bankruptcy protection — an increase of 46 percent over March 2008 and 81 percent over the same month in 2007. (Source.)